Flatpak
Linux software deployment utility From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flatpak is a utility for software deployment and package management for Linux. It provides a sandbox environment in which users can run application software in (partial) isolation from the rest of the system.[5][6] Flatpak was known as xdg-app until 2016.[7]
| |
 Example of installing Krita from Flathub with Flatpak | |
| Original author(s) | Alexander Larsson |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Flatpak Team[1] |
| Initial release | September 2015[2] |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Linux |
| License | LGPL-2.1-or-later[4] |
| Website | flatpak |
Features
Applications using Flatpak need permissions to access resources such as Bluetooth, sound (with PulseAudio), network, and files. These permissions are configured by the maintainer of the Flatpak and can be added or removed by users on their system.[8][9]
Another key feature of Flatpak allows application developers to directly provide updates to users without going through Linux distributions, and without having to package and test the application separately for each distribution.[10]
Because Flatpak runs in a sandbox (which provides a separate, ABI-stable version of common system libraries), it uses more space on the system than common native packages. However, OSTree, a technology underlying Flatpak, deduplicates matching files. This means that the first few Flatpak installations will occupy more space, but as more packages are added, the system will use space more efficiently.[11]
Flathub
Flathub, a centralized repository (or remote source in the Flatpak terminology) located at flathub.org, is the de facto standard for obtaining applications packaged with Flatpak.[12] Packages are contributed by both Flathub administrators and application developers, with a stated preference for submissions from the developers themselves.[13]
Although Flathub is the de facto source for applications packaged with Flatpak, it is possible to host a Flatpak repository that is independent of Flathub.[14][15][16]
Support
Theoretically, Flatpak apps can be installed on any existing and future Linux distribution, including those installed with the Windows Subsystem for Linux compatibility layer, so long as Bubblewrap and OSTree are available.
It can also be used on Linux kernel-based systems like ChromeOS.[17]
See also
References
External links
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